One More Happy Ending: Episode 5

by LollyPip

Whatever is a guy to do, when his best friend is dating the woman he likes? That’s right, make a complete fool out of himself at every opportunity, of course. He can’t admit his feelings, but he also gave up any claim on her, so all he can do is flail at the situation he created. I would feel bad for Soo-hyuk if this situation wasn’t entirely his own fault, and if watching him squirm wasn’t so damn fun.

EPISODE 5 RECAP

A young Mi-mo throws rocks at fish in a stream, and young Soo-hyuk stops skipping awkwardly when he sees her. They shoot each other adorable shy smiles, but something annoys Mi-mo and she suddenly throws a rock at Soo-hyuk. She calls him an idiot and says he’s supposed to throw rocks, and cross the stream on the stepping stones.

Confused, Soo-hyuk consults his little friend Hyun-gi, who says that maybe it was a code. Was he supposed to hit on her by throwing stones like she was doing? He advises Soo-hyuk to throw the biggest, shiniest stone at Mi-mo, and finds him a pretty painted stone to give her, and a wreath of flowers.

But it’s raining by the time Soo-hyuk finds Mi-mo again, and she’s sitting under a gazebo with an adorkably bow-tied Hae-joon. Soo-hyuk watches, mouth agape, while Mi-mo cuddles up to Hae-joon, and his temper starts to flare. He growls that she threw a rock at him first, and now she’s flirting with someone else.

We rejoin Soo-hyuk and Mi-mo in the hallway between their apartments, Soo-hyuk drunk as a skunk and Mi-mo straddling his lap. He takes her face in his hands and leans in, eyes locked on her lips… and passes out.

Which is how Soo-hyuk’s son Min-woo finds them. HAHAHAoops. He crosses his arms like a disappointed father, and demands an explanation. Mi-mo tries to wake Soo-hyuk (“This is making me look bad!”) but he’s out like a light. Min-woo makes sure she’s not putting the moves on his dad or planning to rob them, and enlists her help in getting Soo-hyuk inside.

Min-woo gets some juice to thank Mi-mo, and she notes how mature he is for his age — unlike his dad. She notices that the place is practically wallpapered with photos of the father and son duo, and when she finds out Min-woo ate dinner alone, he says not to pity him. He lives in a beautiful apartment and his dad spoils him rotten. But his eyes do look a little sad, and he says he needs to find a woman — not to be his mother, but for his dad. Awww, that’s sweet.

Mi-mo’s friends are still at Ae-ran’s place in their animal onesies, and Ae-ran and Da-jung talk about Ae-ran’s upcoming marriage. Ae-ran balefully admits that she was swayed by the big diamond and the expectations of her friends and family, but Da-jung wishes her a happy marriage anyway.

Da-jung says that she felt anxious for the entire first five years of her own marriage, and for the last seven years she’s just been a mother. Ae-ran says it will be the same for her, and once they get married they’ll just get used to each other. Dong-mi is passed out drunk, so she misses the text from her failed date apologizing for not showing up.

Mi-mo goes back to see Min-woo with food for Soo-hyuk, and reminds him to keep their door locked. Awww, even the little mini-Romeo looks taken aback by her.

Soo-hyuk looks like seven miles of bad road in the morning, and Min-woo is already heating up the hangover soup from Mi-mo. Soo-hyuk cringes when he remembers calling her a promiscuous goldfish to her face, and nearly cries when Min-woo says she was sober — no hope that she won’t remember.

So of course he runs right into Mi-mo on their way out for the day, resulting in the most awkward elevator ride ever. He literally jumps when she asks him if he remembers harassing her the night before, and denies it. She says if he’s really that lonely, to come see her and she’ll find him a nice match. Oh ouch.

At work Soo-hyuk finds the unfiled marriage registration form still in his pocket, and gets caught by Hyun-gi and Ah-ni. He claims that he and a friend just did it for fun while drunk, but it’s interesting that he refuses to let Hyun-gi destroy it.

In a meeting later, their boss asks about a rumor he heard, that some woman created a scene on the day they shot photos for their expose on Seul-ah’s engagement. Hyun-gi had already gone to see his child be born, and Soo-hyuk feigns ignorance, saying that the disturbance was actually about a diner’s reaction to bad food.

His boss doesn’t quite buy it, because other magazines are reporting otherwise. He orders Soo-hyuk to go back there and find out exactly what happened.

It’s Ae-ran’s wedding day, and she gets married, coincidentally, at the same hotel where Mi-mo confronted her ex and Seul-ah. Dong-mi is still texting Oven Guy, and he flirts right back which makes her day. Mi-mo assures Da-jung that she’s feeling just fine thank you, being at a wedding here.

But just as the ceremony is about to start, the door opens to admit six women, all dressed in sexy mourning black. Everyone is shocked, but the ceremony continues without another interruption. Apparently these are Dong-bae’s ex-girlfriends, and they line up to offer sarcastic well-wishes while Ae-ran scowls and pinches Dong-bae’s arm.

Soo-hyuk ends up at the hotel’s restaurant at the same time, and he asks the waitress if a lot of reporters come here lately. I’m pretty sure he actually bats his eyelashes at her, which works, and she points out one reporter who’s been coming here every day.

Ae-ran has a full-on temper tantrum up in the honeymoon suite, throwing things at Dong-bae and screaming at him for letting her be humiliated. He stands his ground and refuses to apologize — after all, he broke up with all of those women. Except, he does admit that it was awfully recently, one of them only yesterday. Oh, you complete ass.

He’s a totally different person now, and tells Ae-ran that he only married her to make his family stop pressuring him. He married Ae-ran as a shield, so people would stop calling him a womanizer. He genuinely didn’t think she’d have a problem with it, being commitment-phobic just like him, and offers her an open marriage. Which honestly, wouldn’t actually have been terrible if he’d just talked to Ae-ran about it first and gotten her agreement.

Her friends listen outside the door and hear the whole sordid conversation, and Dong-mi has new appreciation for Geun-hak, who has remained faithful after seven years of a celibate marriage. Whoa. She encourages Da-jung to hang in there and not let him go.

Mi-mo decides to go visit her old kitchen informer, who she hasn’t heard from in a while. It turns out he’s off work today, but her old boyfriend Jung-hoon grabs her, thinking she’s there to cause another scene. He drags her to a secluded hallway and accuses her of following him around, already upset with reporters hanging around all the time.

On his way out Soo-hyuk hears the two arguing, and sees Jung-hoon raise his hand as if to hit Mi-mo. But he doesn’t interfere, as Mi-mo seems to be handling herself just fine. The confrontation ends and Jung-hoon walks away, but Mi-mo just can’t let him have the last word, and she throws her shoe at his head.

She goes at Jung-hoon as if to fight for real, but Soo-hyuk sees the reporter and quickly grabs her into a big hug, squealing about seeing his old friend and motioning for Jung-hoon to scram. HAHA. She storms out with Soo-hyuk right behind her, teasing that his hug flustered her and telling her that he liiiikes her.

He says that he won’t be coming to Mi-mo for matchmaking services, because only pathetic people do that. He says the time and effort that dating takes is important, which makes her bristle that he’s looking down on her profession. She says they aren’t close enough to be talking like this, and Soo-hyuk aegyos that sure they are — they kissed and even got almost-married.

He’s in a real mood, and says that she’s the first girl who saw his “thing,” and that he hasn’t been able to sleep since then. And then they hear laughter, and look up to see a whole busful of people listening to their conversation. HAHAHA.

Dong-mi finally gets her date with Oven Guy, and he apologizes again, then gets all intense about starting over from this moment. Dong-mi is so flustered by a simple touch on the hand, she can’t even speak.

Mi-mo has a date with Jae-hoon that night and tells him about Ae-ran’s marriage twist, and Jae-hoon figures it’s good she found out about Dong-bae’s true nature early. He advises Mi-mo to just give Ae-ran a hug if she cries to her, and takes Mi-mo’s hand sweetly.

But Ae-ran ends up at Dong-mi’s place instead, pouting for a place to stay and sympathy. Dong-mi lets her in, but yells that she was texting her new guy, and Ae-ran tells her to go ahead then… then spends the evening lighting her honeymoon lingerie on fire, ha.

Da-jung’s son tells her that they started sex ed at school today, and suddenly asks why she and Daddy don’t sleep together. She calls Mi-mo and says she feels so guilty and that he seemed to blame her, and Mi-mo says that kids these days are smarter than you’d think.

Soo-hyuk’s coworker Ah-ni goes to see Hae-joon — they also know each other from school. She tells him that Soo-hyuk turned her down even though he admitted there was a tiny something there, and Hae-joon says that even a small gap is still a gap.

We see Ah-ni back in school, watching new father Soo-hyuk (with baby Min-woo in tow, aww) across the classroom. She hears from a classmate that Min-woo’s mother died in childbirth, and they sigh over the romantic tragedy of his life. Soo-hyuk and Hae-joon had been in the same dance club, and Ah-ni had joined even though she was a terrible dancer.

Ae-ran can’t sleep and gets up to call Dong-bae, telling him that she’ll be going on their honeymoon alone. She sees Mi-mo’s ex-husband Sung-jae at the airport with his fiancee, and goes to say hello. Still angry about being cheated on, she sizes up the fiancee and warns her to be careful with older men like him.

The fiancee instroduces herself as Si-ah, not one bit intimidated, which Ae-ran comments is annoying. Si-ah puts Ae-ran right in her place, and even does it with class, leaves Ae-ran fuming.

Soo-hyun runs into Mi-mo on her way to a date with Hae-joon, and grumbles about her skimpy skirt. She says that this way her date has to hug her to keep her warm, which just makes Soo-hyuk grumpier.

During a passionate kiss scene in the movie, Mi-mo notices that it’s inspiring couples in the theater to kiss too, and has a minor internal freakout when Hae-joon leans towards her. But he’s just putting the popcorn in her reach, which annoys her. I’m thinking he may have done that on purpose, judging by his little smirk.

They go on several more dates in which nothing passionate at all happens, and now Mi-mo is getting genuinely grouchy about it. Not to mention it’s always dinner and a movie, dinner and a movie, nothing else interesting. Meanwhile Dong-mi and Oven Guy are making out like teenagers every chance they get, and their dates all look very romantic.

The next time Hae-joon texts Mi-mo to ask her to a movie, she tries to think of a way to suggest they do something else, but then she sees a scene on TV of an old movie with some pretty heavy kissing. She gets a brilliant idea, and asks Hae-joon over to her place to watch an old movie.

Hae-joon grins at his phone, but his colleague Yeon-soo has apparently seen all this before. She asks if he’s dragging his feet again, warning him that the girl will get tired. It will lead to misunderstandings and push her away. It feels like Yeon-soo is speaking from experience.

Mi-mo readies for her date and gives herself a pep talk — tonight is the night Hae-joon kisses her, no more delays. She dresses up and lights candles all around the apartment, but when the doorbell rings, it’s Soo-hyuk, here to bring her some mail that was accidentally delivered to his place. HA, she looks so sexy, he literally doesn’t know where to look.

Mi-mo sends him back home, and Soo-yuk can’t resist watching through his peephole to see Hae-joon arriving for their date. He jumps out and acts like Hae-joon is here to see him, and when Hae-joon says he’s not, Soo-hyuk invites them both over for dinner. OMG he’s so jealous it’s adorable.

Hae-joon declines, so Soo-hyuk tries the “I’m so lonely” act, even getting his eyes to well up a bit. Hae-joon just closes the door on him.

The date seems to go well, but right at kissing time, Hae-joon gets a cryptic text from Soo-hyuk. A minute later Hae-joon actually does go in for a kiss, but another text interrupts them again. This time he shuts his phone off.

The third time he tries, Ppoppo whines and pulls on Hae-joon’s pants leg. Fourth try, doorbell rings. Okay, I’m starting to feel bad for the guy. Hae-joon and Mi-mo try to ignore the bell, but whoever it is starts pounding and ringing frantically, so Mi-mo finally answers.

It’s Soo-hyuk, with fried chicken, looking about ready to explode. He invites himself in and sits right between them, even changing the movie to an animated film. I notice that he’s even gotten Mi-mo to cover up in flannel, HA.

Mi-mo tells Dong-mi later that she and Hae-joon have only held hands, and Dong-mi gets to play the more-experienced friend for the first time ever. She tells Mi-mo to just accept that she’s getting older, then wonders if this is why Hae-joon got divorced.

She tells Mi-mo to just admire the pretty and not worry about anything else, and Mi-mo imagines being married to Hae-joon, but he’s just a pretty doll that only lies there. She tries everything to get him to respond to her, but nothing works.

Mi-mo goes to see Hae-joon at the hospital, but he’s busy with a patient. The young girl with the crush on him confronts her again, but Mi-mo is in no mood, and just tells the girl to shut up and go away. The girl whines that it’s already annoying enough to see his ex-wife at the hospital, and what in the what now? She points the ex-wife out, and sure enough, it’s Yeon-soo. I knew it.

Yeon-soo has an appointment with Da-jung, where she tells her that she has breast cancer. She needs a mastectomy, which Da-jung fights, saying that she doesn’t want to live like that. Yeon-soo assures her that she’ll still be a woman, and what’s more, she’ll see her son grow up.

Da-jung cries, remembering when Tae-yong was a baby and she’d been a frazzled new mother, hair a mess and covered in spitup. She and Geun-hak had grown apart, and she’d passively let it happen.

Ah-ni looks on Soo-hyuk’s work computer for some files, and comes across his pictures of Seul-ah’s scandal. She sees that he was lying, and that there was a confrontation with a second woman that day.

Mi-mo is frustrated to death wondering about Hae-joon’s ex-wife and why they divorced, and decides that she has to find out. She goes to see Yeon-soo, several times, but each time she chickens out and just asks medical questions. Finally Yeon-soo offers to just answer Mi-mo’s real question — why she and Hae-joon broke up.

She says that it was her idea, and that he just went along with it. Same situation when they got married… she asked, he said yes. He was never worried about their relationship, never seemed to care very much. Well, that does sound familiar. She knows Hae-joon well enough to know that Mi-mo must have confessed first, and tells her honestly that he will never love her as much as she loves him.

Mi-mo and Dong-mi have drinks, and Mi-mo is consumed with worry that Hae-joon is only dating her because she confessed. Dong-mi suggests a little test to see who is the problem, and teaches Mi-mo one of the magic tricks her guy has performed for her.

Soo-hyuk and Hyun-gi stake out a target who’s slobbering all over his date, and decide they’ve had enough (Soo-hyuk: “If we stay any longer, I might jump on you.” PFFT). Mi-mo is there in a private room giving herself a peptalk for the test, and Soo-hyuk overhears her and screeches to a halt. Hae-joon calls Mi-mo to cancel, being busy at the hospital, and Soo-hyuk barges in to ask why she’s here. He quickly figures out that she got stood up, and joins her.

Mi-mo is disappointed, saying that she wanted to prove to Hae-joon that she’s still young and beautiful, and make him want her. She’s so sad, Soo-hyuk offers to let her do her test on him, to see if he wants her. After all, he’s a man, so if it works on him it will work on Hae-joon.

So Mi-mo agrees to do the test on Soo-hyuk, and all she does is lean in very close and he’s already starting to squirm. She does little slight-of-hand moves, pulling flowers from behind his ears, and from the look on his face I’d say it’s very definitely working.

Mi-mo goes in even closer and blows in his ear, producing another flower, and now Soo-hyuk looks to be in actual pain. She performs the big finish, setting the fake flower on fire and turning it into a real rose, and Soo-hyuk applauds. And then they both notice that her hat is on fire.

Soo-hyuk throws water in Mi-mo’s face, yells, “That didn’t do anything!!” and empties a whole pitcher over her head. Okay, I’m literally crying right now. That was the complete opposite of romantic. Mi-mo gets a chill and lets Soo-hyuk drive her home, and he sweetly turns the heat up for her when she sneezes. Poor guy obviously feels like an ass right now.

Hae-joon is at Mi-mo’s looking for her, and her phone is off when he tries to call. He goes back to his car, where he runs into Soo-hyuk leading a dripping wet Mi-mo into the building. He mutters to himself, “This is going to get complicated.”

They see Hae-joon there, and though Mi-mo’s face breaks into a giant grin, Hae-joon doesn’t return it.

COMMENTS

Well, it looks like all the legs of our love triangle are in place, and now that both men are aware of each other’s interest, I’m looking forward to a good healthy rivalry for Mi-mo’s affections. It’s not that I want their friendship to suffer, but I think that both men could do with a little push in the “making your feelings known” department. Soo-hyuk knows he has feelings for Mi-mo but is afraid to show them, and though it results in some hilariously awkward moments, I do want to see him stand up and be honest with her sooner rather than later. And Hae-joon just needs a good solid kick in the pants… what man dates a woman like Mi-mo — beautiful, successful, intelligent, and even a former idol — and doesn’t do more than hold her hand?

I think jealous petty Soo-hyuk is my very favorite Soo-hyuk, because he’s just so transparent about it. It’s so obvious that he can’t stand the idea of Mi-mo and Hae-joon dating, but because he and Hae-joon are such old friends, he can’t say anything. So he’s stuck inviting himself on their dates and trying to make Mi-mo feel insecure, and it just totally backfires on him. But it’s sweet how he also tries to protect her, even lying at work to keep her name out of the paper, and I just love him for it.

Speaking of jealousy, it sort of scares me, and simultaneously makes me gleeful, that Soo-hyuk still has the unfiled marriage application. I can totally see him filing it and making their marriage real, in an attempt to get Mi-mo back with him again. Yes I know, it would be a terrible violation of Mi-mo and her wishes, but I guess I’m a horrible person like that. I was cheated out of seeing Mi-mo and Soo-hyuk being married against their will, and there’s a large part of me that would still be highly entertained if Soo-hyuk just went off on his own and filed the papers. Seeing him try to flail his way out of that situation would be big fun.

On a more serious note, I really appreciate that the show actually addresses adult situations, and I don’t just mean sex and passion. It’s great that we get those too, and it creates some pretty funny situations whether the characters are getting any of that or not (or even if they aren’t sure they have!). Just admitting that grown adults have sex drives is wonderful, and seeing them deal with their sex drives is a lot of fun, way more fun than open-eyed kissing if I’m honest. But I also am enjoying watching a drama that talks about women’s health, pregnancy, even difficulties getting pregnant and the problems that can come with that. It’s a show that’s about adults, for adults, and there’s no false coyness or dancing around the facts of life. People kiss, and have sex, and sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s disaster, but that’s life.

Such as Da-jung’s marriage, and what trying to conceive has done to destroy the loving relationship that she and her husband once had. They clearly loved each other when they got married, but I’m sure that the pressure to have a child took all the joy out of intimacy for Da-jung and Geun-hak, pretty much right as their marriage began. Wanting a child and not being able to have one is incredibly exhausting and emotionally devastating, even without outside pressure. It’s no wonder that Da-jung cracked after five years, and sadly it was enough to kill their marriage to the point that even their young son knows that things are all wrong. The poor kid, he was the whole reason they fell apart, though through no fault of his own and no matter how wanted he was. Now he’s living in a loveless home and he knows it, if only subconsciously. And it’s obvious that Geun-hak still loves Da-jung, at least enough that he’s not willing to cheat on her, but nobody can live like that for years on end and want to stay. And I still want to know what Da-jung is thinking — why does she push her husband away, emotionally and physically, yet refuse to get a divorce? My heart just aches for all three of the people in that house.

But mostly I’m enjoying Soo-hyuk’s discomfiture over the crazy situation he created by giving his best friend his blessing to date the woman he likes himself, and his efforts to keep them apart without giving himself away was bound to backfire on him eventually. It’s no surprise that Hae-joon caught on first, given how myopic Mi-mo can be about romantic matters. Seeing the two friends battle it out right over her head should be fun, so let the games begin!

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